In a digital camera, the image in front of the objective is projected onto a CCD or CMOS sensor. The image is then converted into digital data and stored in a memory. The memory can be definitively incorporated in the device or it can be removable, it is then presented in the form of a plug-in support. By means of digital technology, the user takes a photograph and is able to see it immediately afterwards on a small screen usually situated on the rear face of the device, typically the screen incorporates LCD or OLED technology. Using the screen, the user can verify the quality of the photograph that has just been taken, decide to keep it in the memory or to delete it, and can display old photographs for which the data are recorded in the memory. In some devices, the CCD or CMOS sensor is sufficiently rapid to carry out the acquisition of a video sequence of short duration. These devices also have a microphone to capture the sound environment during the recording of the video sequence. During the reproduction of the video sequence, a loud speaker located inside the device enables reproduction of the sound recorded at the same time as the images.
Computer programs enable photographs taken consecutively to be connected in such a manner as to create a visual animation. If the sequence is constituted of a high number of photographs and if there is little difference between two consecutive photographs, the reproduction of the sequence gives an impression of movement. For example, a user has an articulated doll that he photographs. Between two photographs, he moves the limbs and head of the doll slightly thus showing that the doll moves. For each take, he slightly advances the scenery that serves as background to the photograph. During automatic reproduction of the picture series, the sequence gives the impression that the doll is walking in front of the scenery. If the reproduction is carried out using at least ten images per second, the spectator has an impression of fluidity in the movement. Any object can be used to create an animated sequence: an animal, a toy, a toy construction set (thus it is possible to create a sequence showing the construction of a house). It is also possible to photograph oneself while dancing, the animated sequence produced presents an effect identical to that of the “Kinetoscope”, a device invented around 1891 by Dickson. This device presented a series of fixed images, each image appearing for a short instant, retinal persistence gives an impression of movement.
To create an animated sequence while filming objects that do not move naturally, it is necessary to take numerous photographs of said objects with a camera fixed on a support. On some cameras, the triggering of the taking of photographs can be effected by pressing on the button of an infrared remote control. This triggering requires a movement on the part of the operator, and thus requires that he release at least one hand from the object that he is animating. As a result the operation becomes fastidious and comprises a risk that the object falls, which would oblige the operator to restart from the beginning of the series of photographs.
The document JP 2000 184367 filed by OLYMPUS describes a camera. This document describes a system enabling still pictures of high quality to be obtained while filming animated video contents. A film camera films a scene and, at a particular moment, triggers the acquisition of an image by a digital still picture camera. Certain movements of objects in the field of the camera trigger a photograph to be taken.
There is therefore a real requirement for a solution enabling the triggering of the taking of photographs to be automated while avoiding that the operator is obliged to perform any physical gesture to provoke this triggering.